Tactical Thoughts

I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with my good friend and Gun Nuts Radio co-host Breda about her recent experience shooting an M14. The short version of the story is that the recoil from the M14 knocked her back a couple of steps, to which everyone and their brother commented on the video saying “lean into the gun”. While this is technically the correct advice, it brings up an interesting point – we are often far too quick to correct someone else’s form without thinking through their shooting process. For those that don’t know, Breda is an amputee, and her left leg doesn’t bend at the ankle. As she points out in the post linked above, this makes it difficult if not impossible to assume the traditional squared off rifle fighting stance that is taught at most gun schools and in the military these days.

Hence, we find ourselves in a situation where the world does not fit, and in the words of Stella from Silverado, “The world is what you make of it, if it doesn’t fit, you make adjustments.” I’m not saying that we shouldn’t offer to help other shooters, mind you – but if you’re going to offer advice to someone, make sure you know all the facts of the situation.

Which brings us to the Tactical Thought: if someone asks you for advice on choosing a gun, or home defense, or self defense, before you respond with “get a Glock/1911/shotgun/Tacti-blaster 5000”, ask them questions first. Get the lay of the land so that when you offer an opinion, it’s an educated opinion. Otherwise, you end up sounding like some guy who says women can’t rack the slide on a 1911.

The sad thing is that all those folks were criticizing her based on a few seconds of video where she fired one shot from a rifle she hadn’t used before, using a firing stance she’d also never used before.

She tried something new, it didn’t work well, and she went back to a stance that better suits her.